{"id":33825,"date":"2024-12-17T19:25:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=33825"},"modified":"2024-12-17T19:25:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:55:36","slug":"india-sri-lankan-take-up-regional-security-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-12-2024\/india-sri-lankan-take-up-regional-security-issues","title":{"rendered":"India Sri Lankan Take up Regional Security Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ International Relations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met PM Modi during his first foreign visit after assuming office.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Outcomes of the Meeting<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Strategic and Defence Cooperation: <\/strong>Sri Lanka assured India that its territory would not be used for activities inimical to India\u2019s interests, ensuring regional stability.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This assurance reflects Sri Lanka&#8217;s balancing act amid China\u2019s growing presence in the region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Capacity Building:<\/strong> India will provide focused training for <strong>1,500 Sri Lankan civil servants<\/strong> over the next five years.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There will be collaboration on capacity building through knowledge-sharing platforms like India\u2019s Aadhaar, PM Gati Shakti, and DigiLocker.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Energy Development:<\/strong> The leaders agreed to take steps towards the implementation of the solar power project in <strong>Sampur.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cooperation amongst <strong>India, Sri Lanka and UAE<\/strong> to implement a multi-product pipeline from India to Sri Lanka for supply of affordable and reliable energy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>People-Centric Digitization:<\/strong> Agreement to fast-track the implementation of the <strong>Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity (SLUDI) <\/strong>project, modeled after India\u2019s Aadhaar.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Collaboration to roll out <strong>Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)<\/strong> in Sri Lanka to improve government service delivery and digital transactions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>India and Sri Lanka Relations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Trade Relations: India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA)<\/strong> in 2000 contributed significantly towards the expansion of trade between the two countries.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India has traditionally been among <strong>Sri Lanka\u2019s largest trade partners <\/strong>and Sri Lanka remains among the largest trade partners of India in the SAARC.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India is also one of the largest contributors to <strong>Foreign Direct Investment<\/strong> in Sri Lanka.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cultural relations:<\/strong> The Cultural Cooperation Agreement signed in <strong>1977<\/strong> forms the basis for periodic Cultural Exchange Programmes between the two countries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tourism:<\/strong> India has traditionally been Sri Lanka\u2019s top inbound tourism market, followed by China.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As per latest data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, India is the largest source for tourists in<strong> 2023.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Maritime Security and Defence Cooperation: <\/strong>In 2011, a decision was taken to establish the <strong>Colombo Security Conclave<\/strong> which aims to further promote maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India and Sri Lanka conduct a joint Military exercise named\u00a0 <strong>\u2018Mitra Shakti\u2019<\/strong>, Trilateral Maritime Exercise<strong> \u201cDosti\u201d,<\/strong> and a Naval exercise named<strong> SLINEX.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Connectivity Projects:<\/strong> Recently, the two sides adopted a vision document to enhance maritime, energy and people to people connectivity.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There are plans to develop ports and logistics infrastructure at <strong>Colombo, Trincomalee, and Kankesanthurai <\/strong>to consolidate regional logistics and shipping.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There are plans to develop a land bridge to provide India land access to the ports of <strong>Trincomalee and Colombo<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Multilateral Forum Collaboration:<\/strong> India and Sri Lanka are member nations of the <strong>South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)<\/strong>, South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme, South Asian Economic Union and <strong>BIMSTEC<\/strong>, working to enhance cultural and commercial ties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Areas of Concern<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Fishermen Issue:<\/strong> Sri Lanka\u2019s proximity to Indian territorial waters has often blurred the line for fishermen on both sides in pursuit of fish stock.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Indian Ocean Geopolitics: <\/strong>In recent years, subtle geo-political and strategic competition in the IOR between the US, China and India has been recognised by Sri Lanka as a possible threat to its security interest in the region.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rise of China:<\/strong> China\u2019s increasing strategic investments in vital maritime ports in the IOR\u00a0 has been an area of concern.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The fear of Indian dominance<\/strong> over the territory of Sri Lanka among the Sri Lankans has been a reality since its independence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India\u2019s proactive engagement with Sri Lanka highlights its role as a reliable partner in ensuring regional security and economic stability.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The reaffirmed assurance from Sri Lanka to safeguard India\u2019s security interests is a crucial step in countering external influences in the Indian Ocean Region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/president-dissanayake-will-not-allow-sri-lankan-territory-to-be-used-against-india\/article68993085.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met PM Modi during his first foreign visit after assuming office.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33826,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33825\/revisions\/33826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}